Met Museum Presents TEDxMet Speakers and Live Stream Today

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today the list of speakers and performers who will participate in the all-day TEDxMet event scheduled for today, October 19, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. The theme of the program is Icons. The Metropolitan Museum is the first art museum to receive a TEDx license to hold a conference in the style of the globally known TED talks.

"The Met has always been a place where geographic and cultural boundaries collide, where ideas connect through our collections and our audiences," said Mr. Campbell in making the announcement. "In that respect, the TEDxMet program represents a more intense version of what goes on in our galleries every day. We'll watch what happens when a wide-ranging line-up of artists, scientists, writers, dancers, musicians, curators, and even a comedian bring their observations and ideas to bear-in full-throttle TED style-on the theme of Icons. I hope that TED's groundbreaking approach for sharing ideas will resonate through our future programming here. I want to thank Adrienne Arsht for her vision and generosity in supporting this landmark event for the Met."

Speakers and Performers:

The participants (in alphabetical order) are: Kyle Abraham, award-winning dancer and choreographer, currently the New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist for 2012-14;Alice Attie, a visual artist who will create drawings based on the TEDxMet Talks; Met Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton, who organized the popular 2011 exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty; Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum and former TED speaker; Iranian-American comedian Negin Farsad, recently named one of the 50 Funniest Women by the Huffington Post, whose film The Muslims are Coming!opens internationally later this month; Navina Najat Haidar, Curator in the Met's Islamic Art Department, who recently helped complete the department's stunning new galleries; Met Curator of medieval art Melanie Holcomb, also the co-curator of a 2016 exhibition on Jerusalem in the Middle Ages; legendary dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones; author and illustrator Maira Kalman; neuroscientist and Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel; artist James Nares, who will present the first wordless TED Talk; New York architecture critic and writer Nicolai Ouroussoff; Jeff L. Rosenheim, Curator in Charge of the Met's Department of Photographs and curator of the acclaimed 2013 traveling exhibition Photography and the American Civil War; artist Lorna Simpson, whose work examines experiences in contemporary multi-racial America; writer and lecturer Andrew Solomon, whose latest book, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (2012), won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; action architect Elizabeth Streb, a MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient and author of STREB: How to Become an Extreme Action Hero; and Luke Syson, the Met's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Curator in Charge of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts since 2012, who organized the landmark 2011 exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan at the National Gallery, London. Iconic financier, banker, art collector, and Met trustee/donor J. Pierpont Morgan will also be represented by Hilary Sargent, founder of ChartGirl.com, recently called one of the 50 Best Websites of 2013 by Time magazine.

In addition, vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Emily Eagan will perform music by Meredith Monkand So Percussion will serve as the 'house band' for the TEDxMet event.

The full TEDxMet program will be streamed live on October 19, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., at www.metmuseum.org/tedxmet. This online page devoted to TEDxMet also carries the most up-to-date information about the program and live stream, as well as a link for ordering tickets.

For live updates during TEDxMet, follow @metmuseum on Twitter and Instagram. Those attending the event or following along online can use #TEDxMet and tag @metmuseum to be a part of the conversation.

Programming of TEDxMet was organized by Limor Tomer, the Metropolitan Museum's General Manager of Concerts and Lectures. Consulting producer is Julie Burstein. This independent TEDx event is operated under license from TED.